Applications for Summer 1L???

I was looking on NALP earlier today and found a few firms that hire 1L's for the summer. I'm currently in Texas for law school but want to go to either California or Florida to work during the coming summer. I'm not at one of the top schools in Texas (ie UT or Baylor), so that could hinder my chances applying to some of these firms w/out a "big name" law school. I know it may be a long shot trying to come in from out of state, but I figure there's no harm in trying.

On NALP, there are some contact names/e-mails/addresses/etc. My question is should I contact these hiring partners now and let them know I'm interested?? (granted, being a 1L I don't have any grades yet. I probably won't have any until at least mid January)

Any advice on how to show interest in some of these positions given the fact I'd be coming in from out of state and I don't have any grades yet? I'm just a little confused about how to handle the whole process as it seems somewhat overwhelming. Thanks for the help!

If these are big firms you're looking at, you're already way behind on the 1L hiring timeline. They started accepting 1L resumes on Dec. 1, and have been setting up interviews for during the winter break.

You need to contact the hiring partner/recruiting coordinator asap (as in, do it yesterday) with your resume. And it's an *excellent* idea to say you'll be in town on certain dates, and would love an opportunity to interview.

And you definitely should get the Guerilla Tactics book to read over break. It seems like you don't know much about the 1L hiring process (waiting for grades is a big no-no, at least if you're trying for big firms). Some schools don't do a great job with info dissemination. This book has great tips for everything from networking to interviewing and everything in between.

I was looking on NALP earlier today and found a few firms that hire 1L's for the summer. I'm currently in Texas for law school but want to go to either California or Florida to work during the coming summer. I'm not at one of the top schools in Texas (ie UT or Baylor), so that could hinder my chances applying to some of these firms w/out a "big name" law school. I know it may be a long shot trying to come in from out of state, but I figure there's no harm in trying.

On NALP, there are some contact names/e-mails/addresses/etc. My question is should I contact these hiring partners now and let them know I'm interested?? (granted, being a 1L I don't have any grades yet. I probably won't have any until at least mid January)

Any advice on how to show interest in some of these positions given the fact I'd be coming in from out of state and I don't have any grades yet? I'm just a little confused about how to handle the whole process as it seems somewhat overwhelming. Thanks for the help!

You aren't at a top school, you are late in applying, and if you aren't top of your class, then you aren't likely going to land Biglaw out of state as a 1L even with some serious ties to the area (if you have any).

If you're not at a top school you probably need to be near the top of your class to have a shot at biglaw for 1L year.

Don't worry about people saying you are behind schedule. If you had applied Dec. 1 without grades, you probably wouldn't have gotten any interviews anyway. Usually only students at top schools get interviews without grades.

I went ahead and ordered Guerilla Tactics from Amazon this afternoon. However, since it'll be a couple days until the book gets here, I wanted to apply to a few firms before Christmas rolls around.

Let me ask those of you who have done this before a question. When I'm sending my cover letters and resumes to the firms, should I send them to the recruiting coordinators or the hiring partners? A couple of my fellow 1L's have sent their cover letters and resumes via snail mail while others have chosen to do it via e-mail. Is there really a benefit either way?? (besides the fact that it'll be more costly to mail these interest letters out to all of these firms)

Ok, here's a situation I've run into. I've got contact information for a recruiting coordinator, but by looking at the name alone, I can't tell if it is a male or female. I don't want to address it to a Mr. when it's actually a Ms., and vice versa.

Any ideas on how to handle this? I looked around the firms website to see if I could find a picture or bio on the person, but was unable to locate anything.